Scientists using a new technique discovered the colorful scenes that were previously hidden in paintings by the ancient Etruscans, a group of people who flourished on the Italian peninsula some 2,500 years ago, before Rome became powerful.
For example, they found new details in a painting of “Tomb of the Monkey” and scenes from an underworld in another work of art.
The Etruscans created detailed paintings, but the passage of time has meant that many of them are now only partially visible and that much of their color has been lost.
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“A big problem is the significant loss of information about polychromy [colors] of preserved paintings, with special attention to some specific colors due to their physical-chemical composition, “said Gloria Adinolfi, researcher at Pegaso Srl Archeologia Arte Archeometria (a research institute), in a presentation given on January 8 at the annual virtual joint meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies.
The fact that some colors survive better with the passage of time than others can give a distorted view of what old paintings were like when they were painted, said Adinolfi. For example, some shades of green tend not to survive well, while red tends to survive, she said. “Red oaks generally appear to be more resistant, so that sometimes reds are dominant and alter the correct perception of the original polychromy of pictorial decoration,” said Adinolfi.
Revealing old paintings
To reveal the paintings, scientists used a technique called multi-illumination hyperspectral extraction (MHX), which involves taking dozens of images in the visible, infra-red and ultraviolet bands of light and process them using statistical algorithms developed at the National Research Council of Italy in Pisa, said team member Vincenzo Palleschi, senior researcher at the research council.
The technique can detect Egyptian blue, a color developed in ancient Egypt that “has a very specific response in a single spectral band,” said Palleschi. The team also analyzed the residual remains of other remaining colors to help determine which colors were in the painting.
By combining MHX and color analysis, the team revealed missing scenes from ancient Etruscan paintings. The researchers revealed several examples during the presentation, including details of paintings depicting the Etruscan underworld, showing rocks, trees and water.
In Tomb of the Monkey, so named because a painting in the tomb shows a monkey in a tree, the researchers discovered details of a painting depicting a person. To the naked eye, the painting looks like a red smudge, but after the MHX and color analyzes were completed, the painting clearly showed a person carrying an object and details of his hair and face. The tomb was discovered in the 19th century, but now, with new technology, painting has become much more visible.
The team’s research is ongoing and more paintings may be revealed in the future.
Originally published on Live Science.